In February, it was reported by Nature (http://www.nature.com/news/-withdraw-more-than-120-gibberish-papers-1.14763) that around 120 fake articles had been published in apparently peer-reviewed conference proceedings.
Springer, one of the affected , which published 16 of these articles, is a member of OASPA. Given that the publication of these articles is evidence of a systematic problem with editorial processes, we have placed Springer’s membership of OASPA ‘under review’, pending a thorough response and description of the steps that are being taken to strengthen the necessary processes. Springer has already indicated that the fake articles are being retracted (http://www.springer.com/about+springer/media/statements?SGWID=0-1760813-6-1458253-0).
The actions being taken by OASPA are consistent with those that were taken last year
(https://oaspa.org/oaspas-second-statement-following-the-article-in-science-entitled-whos-afraid-of-peer-review/) in relation to the sting operation aimed at open-access and reported by Science.
This decision does not affect BioMed Central’s membership of OASPA.
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